On November 12th, Chuck will give a keynote presentation on "Establishing a Culture of High Reliability - Memorial Hermann’s 11-Year Journey" at Becker's 8th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place November 11-13, 2019 in Chicago.

Question: What is the single most important thing you need to do in your role? (Ie: What do you have to be great at?)

Lisa Vance: Master communicator: to inspire, inform and most of all listen to our caregivers.

Q: There is a lot to improve upon in healthcare. Of the many issues that hold your attention, what is the one you consider exceptionally imperative and urgent?

LV: Reducing the total cost of care. We need to hold ourselves accountable to reduce unwarranted clinical variations, use all the tools possible to assist in efficiency and assure we are diversifying the care settings that match the patients/consumer’s needs.

Q: Healthcare leaders today need skills and talents that span beyond those emphasized during formal training and higher education. What is one specific competency that you learned or sharpened in real life?

LV: I’d say servant leadership. Our role as leaders is to assure we can help our people develop and perform as highly as possible. This is the key to a high quality, engaged and successful organization.ocus their efforts and energy. As I partner with hospital leaders, it’s important to assess the impact

and benefits of projects to help prioritize initiatives.For example, everyone is paying attention to the rise in specialty drug costs. Yet often there is little ahospital can do to lower their specialty drug spend. However, there are substantial cost savingspossible through an improved reimbursement strategy and medication utilization-based projects.Not only would prioritizing these initiatives drive meaningful results, they also are within thehospital’s span of control.In addition, I find that hospital leaders can overlook the pharmacy in performance improvementinitiatives, so it is an ongoing education and advocacy about the pharmacy’s potential impact. Thepharmacy should be a center of innovation for a hospital – and innovation is key to expandingservices and improving care.